My fantasy Christmas decor is all rich white and gold with touches of red and heirloom glass ornaments, lots of candles and Father Chrismas. Call it a Victorian Velvet Christmas. A 9 foot Douglas fir tree covered in red & gold ribbons with lots of handblown glass ornaments and real candles on it. Fir swag draped on the walls, the banister, and the mantelpiece, wrapped with white lights and velvet bows. Fir boughs on the mahogany table & sideboard in the dining room surrounding centerpieces of white & gold candles in glass lanterns. Hand beaded velvet stockings hung by the fireplace, Father Christmas statues and pots of poinsettias thoughout the house witt more lighted fir & velvet swags all over the place. Potpourri contaniers, golden tinsel, crystal snowflakes, candles and mistletoe scattered everywhere.
Now, I know people who know me in real life are thinking "I need to call Stacey & tell her her blog has been hacked by some Martha Stewart wannabee." But really, this is my fantasy Christmas look. This is what I grew up with. Not so much the Festival of Lights itself (which started when I was 18) but the Mansion Museum. We toured it every Christmas & I just loved the decor. So rich & cluttered and gloriously lit. That is what Christmas decor is supposed to look like to me. The ultimate decor that the romantic part of me just loves to look at and longs to be a part of.
But, I am at heart a practical person and that decor would never, ever work around me.
First there are the physical issues. I don't have a fireplace or a dining room, let alone a mahogany dining table & sideboard. My kitchen table sees far to much use to have any sort of table runner & centerpiece on it. I do not have a second floor, so no banisters for fir swags with white lights. A 9 foot tree would be too tall for my living room & even if we removed a couple ceiling tiles to accommodate it, we'd still have to remove the sofa & chairs to make room for it.
Then there are the small boys who roam my house unrestrained, shouting and waving swords, oblivious to things like fir swags, candles, tinsel, potpourri contaniers, Christmas knick knacks and fragile glass ornaments. None of these things would survive in my house more than a week.
There is also my husband, who really doesn't like that over cluttered look & who would constantly be moving things around so he can have some clear space to sit or put his feet.
Lastly there is me, with my allergies to dust, and oh yeah, pine. I cannot even imaging dusting all those things regularly. It must take days.
The ultimate problem with elaborate Christmas decor though is one of storage. I can't help but look at photos of well decorated homes and wonder where they keep the stuff the rest of the year. I assume they have large attics or basements, which I lack. I'd have to rent a POD or some other storage facility just to keep the decorations some place.
So while I fantasize about an elaborately decorated Victorian Velvet Christmas, I am quite happy with my 3 foot fiber optic tree, decorated with wooden family heirloom ornaments and my fake fir, prelit swag on the wood stove surround. I like the single row of lights around the living room and the fake fir wreath I decorated with gold bows during one of my "Martha Moments". This year I bought a Father Christmas statue & found an out of reach place to put it. Its a look I can live with.
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